Bryce Harper tapped his helmet because, well, what else could he do?
Harper had just run the count full in the seventh inning Friday night when the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler froze him with a 98 mph sinker at the bottom of the strike zone, an unhittable pitch even for the Phillies’ best hitter.
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Tap, tap, tap.
Call upheld. Strike three. Thanks for playing.
It was that kind of night. Not quite to the level of what the Phillies saw from the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski two months ago in Milwaukee, but in blanking them for 7⅓ innings of a 1-0 loss, Schlittler was darned close.
“No, he’s good,” Don Mattingly said of the Yankees’ Cy Young candidate. “I’ve seen him a few times last year. He bullies you a little bit with the fastball on both sides and kind of makes it go both ways. Yeah, it was good.”
What can be said, then, of the Phillies?
They’ve lost three consecutive games and come out of the All-Star break in a 2-5 funk. They haven’t played horribly; two of the last three losses came by one run. One pitch here or one play there, and a few outcomes would’ve been different.
But they certainly don’t look sharp, either. Not on the bases. Not defensively. Not at the plate. Harper and Kyle Schwarber are both 4-for-25 since the break; Brandon Marsh is 3-for-25; Trea Turner has made four errors in seven games.
The highlight of the series opener against the Yankees, apart from seven strong innings from Jesús Luzardo in a tough-luck decision: The Phanatic’s imitation of LeBron James’ chalk toss before dunking on a man in a Knicks jersey.
The Phanatic is excited about LeBron James choosing Philly: pic.twitter.com/vSLmAGZswt
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) July 25, 2026
Are the Phillies simply in a rut, one of many over a six-month season? Or is there more to be concerned about?
“I’m not necessarily concerned about it,” J.T. Realmuto said. “We’ve been playing good teams, and we definitely would like to be playing better baseball. I think we’re just a little inconsistent right now, throughout the lineup. We’re not scoring enough runs, to be quite frank, and then our defense has scuffled a little bit.”
Indeed, the margin for error is this teeny-tiny: Luzardo threw a sinker down in the zone — exactly where he said he wanted it — and Paul Goldschmidt hit it into the right-field bleachers to lead off the fourth inning.
And that was enough to beat the Phillies.
“Sinker down, 2-0, just trying to get back in the zone, and he just put a good swing on it,” Luzardo said. “He’s been around for a long time.”
It doesn’t get easier Saturday night, when the Phillies will call up 32-year-old journeyman Brian Keller for his major-league debut as either a starter or bulk pitcher. The Yankees will counter with lefty Ryan Weathers; the Phillies have struggled to hit lefties.
“Obviously the talent’s there,” Realmuto said. “We feel good about our team. We’re just not playing our best baseball right now. We’ve just got to turn it around, get it going.”
Goldschmidt’s homer was the first hit of the game for either team. The Phillies got their first against Schlittler on Schwarber’s one-out double in the fourth inning. But Harper grounded out and Marsh struck out to extinguish any rally.
The Phillies didn’t threaten again until the eighth when they finally knocked out Schlittler with two on and one out. Edmundo Sosa singled to load the bases before Turner flew to shallow left field and Schwarber grounded out.
“I was ready to tag up and score [on Turner’s ball],” said Realmuto, whose baserunning blunder ended Tuesday night’s game against the Dodgers. “[Third base coach Anthony Contreras] told me no, which was the right call. I was going to be out at home.”
In the ninth, Marsh hit a ball hard to left field, where Cody Bellinger made a leaping catch on the warning track to rob extra bases.
That kind of night. That kind of week.
And not many answers.
“I don’t think it’s anything specific,” Luzardo said. “It’s more so just kicking it back into high gear and playing the brand of baseball that we were playing before the break. There’s a little sense of, we’re right there. We’re not getting blown out. We’re a play away, maybe a swing away, an out away, whatever it might be from winning that game.
“As long as we’re keeping games close, as long as we have a chance, we’ll come out on top more times than not.”
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